After last week’s debate, the Trump vs. Biden rivalry is at its fiercest. And in 2020, the debate stage perhaps has a rival as the most important battleground: social media. As the campaign is unfolding on social networks, a Heepsy study finds that Trump has more followers, and Biden has higher engagement.
Election Day is just a month away, and in light of the president’s recent Covid-19 diagnosis, online campaigns are more important than ever. Throughout his term, Trump has used Twitter and YouTube to communicate directly with his audience. And the Biden campaign has recruited Instagram influencers in order to help spread its message on the network.
As the presence of social media continues to impact daily life, including politics, Heepsy has analyzed the follower count and engagement of Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s social profiles on three networks: Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. The study highlights that on social media, Trump’s accounts have greater numbers of followers and Biden’s higher engagement.
Engagement rate is a marketing metric used to evaluate the level of interaction between a social media profile and its audience. It varies by network and audience size.
On all 3 social networks, Trump attracts greater numbers of followers
Trump has accumulated more followers than Biden on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Both profiles are growing with time, but at different rates. Trump has grown his Instagram followers by 2% in the last 4 weeks, and Biden 11%. On Twitter, Trump has gained 600K new followers, and Biden 700K, since Sept. 29th. On YouTube, Trump has attracted 130K new followers since last Tuesday, and Biden 52K.
Biden’s smaller follower bases are generally more engaged
On Instagram, Biden has a high 3.9% engagement rate compared to that of profiles of a similar size. Trump has an average 1.5%. On Twitter, Biden’s 6.56% engagement is over 7x higher than Trump’s 0.90% rate.
YouTube, which offers the ability to like and dislike a video and therefore accounts for both positive and negative engagement, provides different results: Trump comes in at 5.43% and Biden at 3.06%. Due to the president’s recent Covid-19 diagnosis, the Biden campaign has suspended negative advertisements against their opponent.
About Heepsy
Heepsy is an influencer marketing platform powered by big data and AI. Search for Instagram influencers and Youtube influencers, get detailed analytics, and organize your outreach.
Source: Instagram analysis by Heepsy; screen captures from Heepsy interface. Twitter and YouTube analysis from candidates’ public profiles. Twitter engagement rate calculated as sum of replies, retweets and likes divided by number of followers. YouTube engagement calculated as sum of likes, dislikes and comments divided by number of subscribers. Sample size: 11 most-engaged tweets and most-watched videos, 1 from each day between 9/24-10/4. Discrepancies may exist due to data updates.
